A very freaky thank you x

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! I hope 2016 is fantastic and brings you everything you hope and dream!

The year 2015 has been an amazing adventure for me and it really started off with an incredible honour – being awarded Mitchell Shire Council’s Young Citizen of the Year on Australia Day. This award meant the world to me and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help and support of so many awesome people.

Again, my involvement at OKR FM has continued to provide me with so many opportunities and learning experiences and I’ve cherished every moment. My 150th Freak Show in September coincided with AFL Finals and I presented an AFL-themed show with some amazing interviews and special guests. I travelled to Darwin to interview Abbey Holmes and spent some time with Scotty at HOT100 Darwin.

My special guests included Michael Egan, Ray Carroll and Catherine Mogridge and I was very excited by some surprise messages from a few Western Bulldogs players. Of course, the amazing success of my adored Doggies in 2015 really made that time of year pretty special in 2015. Thank you to every single person involved!

I was honoured to be invited to speak at some important events during 2015. The Mitchell Shire Council’s International Women’s Day function was a huge inspiration to me and speaking on behalf of young women in our local area was a privilege. I also loved speaking at the Australian Local Government Women’s Association conference in May. It was an emotional and proud experience for me, and meeting so many beautiful and successful women from many areas of local government was definitely a life-changing experience. It was incredibly inspiring to be surrounded by women who have all contributed and achieved simply by sharing their gifts and passions with their communities and working as hard as they can.

As always, music has played a huge part in my life and there were some truly amazing moments. One of my biggest dreams came true – seeing Fleetwood Mac perform live and being in the same place as Stevie Nicks was one of the greatest things I’ve ever experienced. When she told a story about being young and having the dream to do something great and never giving up, and then looked straight at me and smiled – that was something I’ll never forget.

Continuing with my own music tuition, education and experiences was a priority and a highlight for me in 2015 and I’ve been so lucky to meet some wonderful new people who are helping me and encouraging me with everything music-related on a whole new level. I can’t wait to continue with my development and education in 2016.

And then there was Real Freaks Think Pink and honestly, words can’t describe how amazing things have been. I started 2015 wanting to do something important and make a difference, to honour the memory of a beautiful friend.

I could never have anticipated how much support I would receive – from the entire region, Melbourne-based organisations and even interstate. This experience has helped to shape the person I hope to become in the future. With the help of so many remarkable people and businesses, I was able to raise $10,000 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. There are so many people to thank for this experience but I really want to acknowledge all of the local businesses and my local community – I will forever appreciate everything everyone did for this amazing cause.

So as you can imagine, I’m hoping to achieve so much more in 2016! I will definitely be doing more fundraising work for the National Breast Cancer Foundation and over the next 18 months I would like to raise $20,000. This will also involve being a part of the 2017 Trek for a Cure with the NBCF and it’s a huge dream I hope to achieve. I will also continue to develop Real Freaks Think Pink and my campaign to deliver Breast Cancer Awareness and Education workshops to all senior secondary students in Australia. If you are able to help in any way, please feel free to contact me. I would greatly appreciate it!

I would also love to raise the profile of our wonderful station ORK FM in the Mitchell and Macedon Ranges Shires – so if you would like to catch up for a chat, please let me know! I also hope to be able to contribute as much as possible to my local community in any way I can – especially through the Mitchell Shire Youth Council, the Mitchell Shire Volunteer Advisory Panel, the radio station and through my school community.

I have also recently been able to launch Freak Media and this will definitely be my life from now on, in both a personal and professional capacity, as I build my dreams for the future. I continue to use the “Freak” reference in everything I do as I really feel that it represents who I am and just how special and awesome it is to be a freak! So I hope you’ll all join me in my adventures in music, radio, photography, journalism, fundraising and all the other crazy things I’ll get up to in 2016.

I would really like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone for making 2015 an incredible year and for all your support, encouragement and love. Everyone at OKR FM, everyone I have met and spent time with, all my wonderful supporters on social media, our local newspaper and council, the local business community who I adore and of course, my amazing family and friends who stand by me and help me with any crazy idea I throw at them – everything I am, is because I have you all by my side. Thank you so much.